Zeb turned when he felt the knitter stirring beside him.
‘It happens,’ she said, looking at him with bleary eyes. ‘Talking to yourself on a first flight. I’ve been there, done it.’
She offered a running commentary as they approached Chek Lap Kok Island, the location of Hong Kong International Airport.
‘It was built in the nineties,’ she informed him, ‘because the original airport, Kai Tak, had run out of capacity. There’s nothing else on the island. A convention center, ferry terminal, and hotels. Are you on a sightseeing trip?’
‘Yes, ma’am. Me and my friends,’ he nodded at his team.
‘Huh?’ She squinted at Bwana. ‘He isn’t showing any flight nerves.’
‘He’s flown before,’ he replied politely.
‘Here we go,’ she clutched his palm as they landed on the runway. ‘You’ll get used to it the more you travel.’
She hustled up to his friends after they entered the terminal building and sized them up. ‘You should have gotten him to sit with you,’ she said, shaking her head at them.
‘Ma’am?’ Meghan’s brow furrowed questioningly.
‘He’s flying for the first time!’ She wagged a gnarly finger at the elder sister. ‘He was nervous the whole time. He even spoke in his sleep.’
‘You’re right, ma’am. We should have thought of that. I hope he didn’t trouble you too much.’
‘I held his hand when we were landing. Poor thing, he was shivering.’
That wasn’t me. It was the seat that was shaking! He signaled at his friends with his eyes.
‘Did he puke on you, ma’am?’ Beth asked with an innocent look.
‘He held it in, but if I sensed he was going to,’ she brought out her knitting needles in a flash, ‘I would have jabbed him with these.’
And with that, she parted from them.
‘Don’t start,’ Zeb warned when he felt seven pairs of eyes on him.
‘You poor dear.’ Beth clutched his arm solicitously and burst out laughing at his expression. She led him to a coffee shop, where they ordered drinks and sat down around a table.
‘They’re in the next store,’ she told him when he scanned the busy lounge.
He followed her eyes and located Zhang, Jiaho and Dan, whispering softly to one another as they dug into their food. The cab operator felt his gaze and looked up. He said something to his companions, who looked in their direction, but glanced away hastily when Bear gave them a cheery wave.
‘They could have reported you, Beth and Meg to the airport staff,’ Roger pointed out, smoothing his hair using the table’s reflection as a mirror.
‘That would have exposed them as well,’ Zeb objected. ‘That they had false identities. No,’ he shook his head. ‘They’ll wait until we’re in Beijing.’
‘And then what?’ Chloe challenged him. ‘How can we get away from the airport?’
‘We’ll figure something out.’
She looked at him suspiciously and then at their friends when he didn’t elaborate. ‘He’s holding something back.’
‘He always does that,’ Broker said disgustedly and then grinned widely and struck a pose.
‘What are you doing?’ Beth hissed at him.
‘Those three are taking our photographs. Look at the way Dan’s holding his phone. There’s no way he can speak in that position.’
‘Probably confirming our presence in Hong Kong.’
Jian Hsu was in his office near Tiananmen Square, going through a case file. He was one of the most powerful men in the country, had flunkies who jumped to attention whenever he snapped his fingers, but bureaucratic paperwork was something only he could attend to. It gave him little satisfaction that the files he signed off on were highly classified, the kind that only his deputy, Jimmy Rong, had access to.
He rolled back the cuff on his sleeve and muttered a curse. He had a meeting with the president in two hours. He leaned back and rolled his neck to ease its stiffness.
He was in a large, glass-walled office at the corner of the concrete building identified as the headquarters of the Ministry of Public Security. Few knew that it was also where the MSS head was based. Even fewer people knew of the Xiyuan building or of the other offices in Beijing and Hong Kong that Hsu worked out of. He rarely spent more than a week in any one location and continually moved between the various offices. That wasn’t only for security reasons. He liked to visit any MSS facility unannounced. It gave him a sense of pride at the way his staff stiffened to attention at his arrival. It’s about showing them I am watching.
He swiveled his chair and glanced out of the window to the vast Tiananmen Square. At over 440,000 square meters, it was one of the biggest public squares in the world. It was where military parades were held, tourists gathered, and had become famous for the student protests over thirty years ago.
Fools. Hsu’s lips thinned. They thought they could bring Western democracy to China by protesting, by stopping the military. We crushed them. We showed the world what our country is capable of. The West can keep its demonstrations and slogans. We do things differently here. We have the military. And, the MSS.
He turned around when he heard footsteps approaching rapidly.
‘Yes, Jimmy?’ he barked at his deputy. His subordinate had studied at Stanford, and his time in America had prompted him to Westernize his first name. Hsu hated it, but he had to admit, the man was brilliant, capable, and could one day head the MSS.
After I step down.
‘Laoban.’ Boss. The deputy shut the office door behind him and caught his breath. He spread out several photographs on the table and arranged them for his superior. ‘I thought you should see these.’
Hsu stilled when he recognized them.
Zeb Carter and his team.
‘Where are they?’
‘On a flight. They are coming to Beijing.’